Chapter 7

Winry's eyes remained fixed on the door, even as the movements of her wrists grew more frantic. She didn't know who was entering, but she knew who it was likely to be. And if it was Envy, come back to complete his near-rape...Winry silently vowed that she would fight him tooth and nail until she was no longer able.

But it was not Envy who peered around the door. Her visitor was smaller, with black hair instead of green. And when they finally stepped into the room, Winry realised who it was.

"Wrath?" she gasped, or would have gasped, if it wasn't for the cloth in her mouth. The word actually came out sounding like, "Rah?"

Winry relaxed, but not by much. At least it wasn't Envy, but the last time she had seen Wrath, he had been fighting with Ed. What would he do to her?

"Winry?" Wrath's inhuman eyes widened as he took in her restraints and her state of undress.

Winry's cheeks burned as Wrath approached, having just remembered her own, rather humiliating, position. She felt the mattress dip as Wrath sat beside her, and reached for her bonds. At first, Winry tensed, wondering what he was doing as she felt something rocking against the material tied around her limbs. Then, to her surprise, her restraints went slack, and the gag fell loosely from her lips.

Wrath had cut her free.

Winry slowly pulled her arms and legs back into a more natural position, wincing at the pins and needles that signaled her limbs were alive. Every muscle ached and every joint felt swollen. Her lips felt sore and stretched, and she slowly moved her jaw from side to side, working the kinks out. She hastily pulled her clothes back into place.

But when she brought her hands in front of her, she was astonished by the deep lacerations that wrapped each wrist like a pair of bracelets, oozing blood. Apparently, her struggles had been more successful than she thought.

"Does that hurt?" Wrath asked, sounding genuinely curious.

He touched the ragged edge of the wound, but withdrew when Winry hissed in pain.

"I-I need to bandage it with something..." she muttered, her eyes landing on the silken remnants of her restraints.

Winry wrapped the silk around her wrist several times before attempting to tie it off. But it was difficult with only one hand, she couldn't hold the silk taut against her skin.

"I can do that, if you want...?" Wrath said, gesturing to her makeshift bandages.

"Uh...thanks..." Winry smiled, a little uncertainly.

Truth to tell, Winry was a little surprised at Wrath's gentle manner. Was this the same psychotic creature who'd attacked Ed? He was acting like the innocent, curious child he'd been when she first met him. Did he have split personalities or something?

He finished with her wrists, and Winry automatically smiled her gratitude. She examined her wrists – the rich purple of the hangings made it look as though she were making some sort of fashion statement.

"Mom says Envy was in here," Wrath said, looking concerned. "Did he hurt you?"

Winry shook her head. "No, but I'm not exactly eager to see him again."

"I don't like Envy either," Wrath confided.

Winry snorted, tossing her head. Wrath suddenly looked bewildered, and it took her a while to realise he was staring at her neck.

Her hand came up automatically, and encountered a dry, flaky substance on her skin. Then Winry remembered Envy's bite. She rubbed the dried blood away, grimacing as she touched the bite mark. Bites were bad – they could get infected very easily. But there was nothing could be used as a potential steriliser, so she'd have to take her chances.

"What happened?" Wrath asked, one finger half-extended, as though he wanted to touch the mark but then thought better of it.

"Don't worry about it," Winry told him, upturning the collar of her shirt and combing her hair over the injury to cover it. The thought of Envy's mark on her skin made her shudder.

"Where am I?" she asked, in an attempt to distract herself from the appalling memories the bite mark prompted.

"One of the bedrooms," Wrath supplied, "I'm supposed to stay with you. Don't know why though...maybe to stop Envy coming in again?"

'To stop me escaping, more likely,' Winry thought bitterly, but she did not voice her conclusion aloud. Wrath seemed so oblivious it didn't seem fair to get mad at him.

"So," he said, sitting on the chair and swinging his legs, "What do you wanna do?"

Winry glanced at Wrath out of the corner of her eye. She just couldn't reconcile this apparently guileless persona to the one that had viciously attacked Ed and Al. She wondered if he had some sort of evil twin.

She let out a gusty sigh. It didn't matter. What mattered was that, however innocent her jailer seemed, she was under close watch. She wouldn't be escaping anytime soon. Her best hope was to wait until Wrath left, and resume her attempts to regain her freedom. Or she could wait until her captor's plans for her were in motion, then simply try to foul things up as much as possible. Both plans had their possibilities.

With a soft sigh, Winry resigned herself to a lengthly stay in her prison.

She became aware that Wrath was still awaiting her answer. Well, as long as she was here, she might as well enjoy herself.

Winry leaned back slightly, testing the springs in the mattress. A wicked idea popped into her mind. If she couldn't escape, she could ensure she was as frustrating a captive as possible by destroying some valuable property.

"Wrath, how do you feel about jumping on beds?"

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Ed jiggled his foot impatiently as he sat at the table, waiting for the hours to miraculously melt away. Why couldn't Izumi and...and him...just appear?

"Brother, you should eat," Al said softly.

Ed glanced down at the table. He'd grabbed some food from the cafeteria on instinct, but now that he was actually sitting down at one of the tables, he found his appetite evaporating.

"I'm not hungry."

If Al had actually been able to breath, he would have choked. Ed, not hungry? Apparently fear could steal away even the most voracious appetite.

But Ed had to eat. So Al brought out the secret weapon.

"Brother, you need to eat to have any hope of bringing Winry back."

Ed stared at the meal in front of him, and wondered if Winry had eaten. Or was she was going hungry? Was she tired, or cold, or hurt?

Please, not hurt.

Ed's eyes darkened for a moment, then he reached for the simple meal in front of him.

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Winry collapsed, exhausted, on the bed. She wriggled, feeling the springs give as though the whole mattress was about to cave in.

"I think we broke the bed," Wrath giggled, still jumping.

"No more," Winry gasped, holding up a hand. "I can't jump anymore."

"So, what are we going to do instead?"

Winry's eyes landed on the alchemy books in the shelf. "I got an idea, come on."

She tugged out a thick green-bound book and opened it. Incomprehensible arrays and writing sprawled before her, and she flipped it around so Wrath could see it.

"Is this important?"

Wrath shrugged.

With a certain amount of glee, Winry tore the page out. She folded it swiftly into a paper plane, and sent it flying across the room to hit the doorknob and drop to the floor.

"That was cool!" Wrath laughed. "How'd you do that?"

"You don't know how to make paper planes?"

He shook his head, and Winry felt a flash of sympathy. What kind of life did this kid have, that he didn't know about paper planes?

"Come here, I'll show you how to make them."

Winry admitted to a bit of perverse pleasure in destroying her captor's property, breaking the springs of the mattress, tearing out the pages of one book after another. She taught Wrath how to fold the pages, and soon both were constructing the fragile planes and inventing competitions. Contests like whose plane could stay aloft for longest, whose went the furthest, and whose was the fastest. Winry showed Wrath how you could differ the folding to suit a plane for a specific purpose.

When she was younger, Winry learned some origami. And for lack of anything better to do, she passed it on to Wrath, showing him how to make fish, swans, grasshoppers, even birds that could fly like the planes. He was particularly interested in the frogs that jumped when you pressed their back legs.

Meanwhile, whenever Winry had a hand free, she slid it under the bed and resumed trying to work a spring loose. The spring had snapped in two when she and Wrath jumped on the bed, and the edge was as sharp as a knife. It wasn't much of a weapon, but it was better than nothing.

Winry winced when the softened metal finally snapped with a resounding ping.

"What was that?" Wrath asked

"Beats me," Winry shrugged, turning away as she hastily tucked the sharp coil in the waistband of her pants.

She reached for another book, ready to resume her origami and distract Wrath, when she noticed a notebook tucked between two thick volumes. She pulled it out, and a pen fell from the spine. The book was small, about the size and width of a thin instruction manual. Succumbing to curiosity, Winry opened it, flicking through the scribblings.

Then she stopped. She might not know much about alchemy, but she knew enough to recognise that notebook in her hands was packed with information on the Philosopher's Stone.

Her first thought was Ed. He could use this, and she was pretty sure that something like this couldn't be found in the library.

Acting quickly, Winry stuffed the notebook up her shirt, hooking it into the edge of her bra to hold it against her stomach. It was lucky it was so thin, the book curved around her body and didn't even make an indent in her clothes. It was almost invisible, and if no one noticed, she could give it to Ed when she got out of here.

"What are you doing?" Wrath asked, innocently inquiring.

"I...um..." Winry's eyes cast around wildly, and landed on the pen that had fallen from the notebook. "I found a pen!"

She showed it to Wrath.

"Now we can draw on them!" he beamed, brandishing his newly-constructed dog.

Winry smiled. His enthusiasm was contagious. "Or we can sketch."

She tore a title page from one of the books – blank except for a brief sentence in the middle – and snatched the ink pot from the desk.

"Don't move," she grinned, beginning to sketch the young homunculus opposite her.

As a mechanic, and as one who designed her own work, Winry had become good at sketching by necessity. It wasn't much of a leap to go from drawing bolts and wiring to drawing skin and hair. She'd managed to sketch down to Wrath's waist before she realised he was becoming fidgety, so she left it as a head and torso inking.

"Check this out." Winry handed the paper to Wrath, who seemed delighted.

"That's good. Let me draw you?" he asked, freshly inked pen poised over the paper.

Winry arranged herself as neatly as she could. "Go right ahead."

While trying to hold herself as still as possible, her mind spun away, planning her escape. She had a sharp spring (though these creatures seemed to be able to heal their injuries), she had a notebook (which she had to keep hidden), and...

And she was hungry! How long had it been since she had eaten, anyway? Her stomach was starting to develop that hollow, empty-sack feeling, and she could feel it rumbling, even if she couldn't hear it yet.

"Done!" Wrath crowed, handing over his drawing.

Taking the sketch, Winry was surprised at how accurate it was. Wrath had sketched her like she had him, from the waist up, the small inking in the opposite corner from hers. It wasn't as good as her drawing of him, but it was far from childish.

"This is good," Winry grinned, admiring it. "Is this the first time you tried sketching someone?"

Wrath nodded.

"You've got talent."

Wrath beamed, and continued his origami. Winry idly fiddled with the pen, drawing random lines across the paper as she mused on her escape.

She came to herself when she realised what she had written.

She had scribbled out the title, and written just underneath it; What I'm Going To Do When I Get Out Of Here.

Checking to make sure Wrath wasn't watching, Winry gave into the impulse to write something.

1) Give the book to Ed.

That would be first, swiftly followed by;

2) Buy a watch.

That way, if she was ever kidnapped again, she'd at least know what time it was.

Getting into the rhythm, Winry began to write more and more, even things she was fairly sure she would never do.

3) Explain to Envy that I never accepted money for sleeping with Ed (never slept with him, period), and thus, cannot be called his whore.

4) Demolish the expensive and tacky room I am currently being kept in.

5) Learn self-defense (besides the wrench-throwing).

6) Kick whatever bastard invented the hog-tie.

7) Learn lock picking (just in case this ever happens again).

8) Have a big party to celebrate my escape. Possibly with alcohol, I've always wanted to try some.

Winry paused, looking over her list and getting slightly depressed. What if she never got out?

Then she gave herself a firm mental shake. She couldn't think like that, she couldn't...

Still, the final entries were written in a slightly more sombre mood.

9) Give Den a big hug.

10) Tell Granny I love her.

11) Give Al a big hug.

12) Give Ed-

Winry halted. Give Ed what? Deciding this was her list, and no one else ever had to see it – it could remain her secret until her dying day – Winry scribbled that entry out and wrote something else instead.

12) Tell Ed I love him.

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AN: In the anime, it seemed that Lust and Wrath were the homunculi most capable of redemption. At times, Wrath acted like the child he appeared to be, and I decided to have my story reflect this.